Elecraft, Reply to Herb

[Martin.Evans]

Hi Herb, saw your message to the reflector and thought I would offer my own
experience.

Firstly congrats on the license, I got licensed here in the UK about 16
months ago now, I chose the Elecraft K1 as my first rig for the following
reasons:

   I wanted to work mainly HF CW at QRP levels and the K1 being CW only
   would commit me to learning CW ( ie no mic to fall back on)

   I don't have a lot of spare cash. (The K1 is not cheap but excellent
   value for money)

   I like building things and have been soldering for many years

   The write ups for the K1 (and K2 of course) were excellent and having
   downloaded the instruction manual and circuit diagram I was absolutely
   hooked, I just had to have one!

   The K1 is very small and suited my tiny shack (basically a writing desk
   in the corner of the lounge)

   The K1 is a rig I can understand (the basics anyway) and would be able
   to fault find if anything went wrong (can't afford expensive bills for
   sending gear back to the manufacturers)

   The K1 offered portability (I have a caravan)

The were many other reasons but those are the main ones.

It took me a few months to complete the K1 mainly because I took my time
and I only had an hour or so in the evenings to do it. I had the minimum of
test equipment (a digital multi meter, my ears and a long wire down the
garden), it was done on the kitchen table with a basic tool kit and a 25W
soldering iron.

Herb, you can't believe my amazement when at every step the K1 worked first
time perfectly, I had no problems whatsoever, I had to spread the VFO coil
out a bit to get the correct range (which it tells you to do in the manual)
and aligning the 20m filters took a few goes until I could hear a signal to
peak up on.

As many have said on this reflector the main thing is go slowly, follow the
manual to the letter, check everything as you do it 3 times just to make
sure and be able to make a reasonable solder joint. Soldering is not
difficult once you know how. If you need to learn soldering then read the
elecraft tutorial and if possible watch someone do it and copy them. If you
have never put together an electronics kit before then I would suggest you
buy one of the cheap QRP kits first (say a SW receiver) and use that as a
practise project, it will give you confidence and get your soldering up to
scratch.

When I have got proficient in CW I may get a K2 but I'm more than happy
with the K1 at present, it is still my only rig running 5W into simple
dipole antennas and I get great reports and lots of fun.

I don't know your personal situation Herb but hope that the above may help.
Welcome to the hobby and maybe see you on the bands one day.

73's
Martin
M0KWV
K1 #1534



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